Most of us have had at least one boss who tells workers to “leave their personal problems at the door!” But that advice was never very realistic. And in this day of texting, social media, and a phone in everyone’s pocket, it’s even less likely. The communication age makes it more important than ever to make stress management a high priority both to keep workers safer and to avoid hits to your company’s bottom line.

Now that the OSHA rule on Walking-Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems (29 CFR 1910 Subparts D&I) has been effective for more than a year, organizations are still working to understand and implement required changes to fall protection projects, policies and programs.

To be a professional in the Environmental, Occupational Health, Safety and Security Career field is not something to be taken lightly. Professionals in this career field have to have a caring mentality about them. I personally am very lucky to love what I do for a career and take it very personally. I truly believe that it is possible for a culture to exist where people do not get injured by simply going into their profession.

Injuries in the workplace cost American companies billions of dollars every year. According to OSHA, it is estimated that employers spend 1 billion dollars a week on workers compensation costs in the United States. That is just the money going towards workers compensation. There are also costs that come from the days that injured employees miss work. Injuries and accidents that force injured employees to miss at least six days of work cost employers in the United States about 62 billion dollars a year.

Most truths about communication are timeless. With all the cultural and political tension we observe today it might seem this was written as a response to that tension. However, in fact, it is one more look into how to be the most effective safety motivational speaker possible. So how important is it to be politically correct?

Winter across the world brings with it a variety of weather conditions. From the biting cold, snow, rain and wind of the Northern Hemisphere to the scorching temperatures and humidity of the Southern Hemisphere, it pays to be fully prepared for this winter season.

For many years I worked as someone who came into a company or organization which was in serious risk of going under. It seemed strange to me that almost without exception there was a significant resistance to making change / improvement in a culture that most all thought to be terminally sick.

For a recent job assignment I was driving from Copper Mountain, Colorado to Denver, Colorado to catch a flight to the Pacific Northwest. As I prepared to leave, with a significant amount of spare time to make this important flight, I checked the internet for road conditions.

OSHA’s recent decision to delay the effective date of its controversial beryllium exposure rule has generated a lot of attention in the industrial safety media, and rightly so. The beryllium rule is a perfect example of the government overreach that industry often highlights: policies made with good intentions that go beyond their stated goal.

Last Christmas, I gave my husband Steve a page-a-day calendar with Insights from the Dalai Lama. Occasionally, Steve shares one of these daily insights with me.